Jerónimo Martins expands to Slovakia

Portugal’s supermarket giant Jerónimo Martins (JM) is to expand to Slovakia. It will be the third country in Europe after Portugal and Poland – where the national operator has a strong presence and is the largest private employer in the country.

The announcement was made on Thursday during a conference with analysts about the group’s results, results that saw profits increase 33.3% to €558 million in the first nine months of the year.
According to Bloomberg, the financial director of Jerónimo Martins, Ana Luísa Virgínia, indicated that the group’s operation in the new market, which will be the fourth after Portugal, Poland and Colombia, will “start from scratch”. A figure for the investment has not bee advanced.
“We’re not going to reveal much. The first stores are planned to open from April to the end of 2024, so I think it is too early to provide details about CAPEX or sales,” said the Ana Luísa Virgínia.
In March, the boss of the Pingo Doce supermarkets in Portugal, Pedro Soares dos Santos, mentioned the potential for expansion into Romania, a plan that has been part of the food retailers ambitions for several years.
Luís Araújo, CEO of Bidedronka, the company’s brand of supermarkets in Poland, said JM was “open to good opportunities” and that expansion plans, if they were to materialise, would be in Eastern Europe.
“We have lots of consumers who cross the border into Poland to buy in our stores. We have concrete objectives and well-developed ideas for this to become a reality. We are prepared to seize the opportunity in a short time”.
Moreover, the Czech Republic has a similar consumer profile and purchasing power.